LONDON — (NEA) — Britain has been invaded by giant salt shakers with electronic voices, waving antennae and flashing lights on their heads.

These are the Daleks, the space-age villains of a BBC television serial called "Dr. Who," which has 15 million Britons glued to their television sets every Saturday afternoon.

The Daleks are mutant survivors of a neutron war on another planet, and as such they are supposed to strike terror in the hearts of the viewers. But unexpectedly Britons aged from 8 to 80 have fallen in love with them.

In fact, the nation appears to be in the grip of Dalek madness, with Dalek toys, comic strips, phonograph records, clothing and candy flooding the market.

Pre-holiday hit was a disc titled "I'm Wanna Spend Christmas With a Dalek," which employs the weird bleep-bleep theme music of the "Dr. Who" serial.

In the television serial, the Daleks invade Briton in the year 2000 bent on burrowing to the earth's center and stealing its magnetic care. The Daleks, themselves, are vulnerable in that they can exist only if encased in metal machines.

But they employ some pretty nasty allies including flying saucers and monsters called humanoids, who look like men, but who have electronic brains.

Far from being terrified by the Daleks. British kids of all ages want to cuddle them. Ever since the present "Dr. Who" series started in November, the BBC has been flooded with letters from viewers wanting to know how Daleks eat, and if there are any female or baby Daleks, and if so will the BBC please show them. In Scotland a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Daleks bas been formed.

As far as Dalek gadgets are concerned, these are selling like something out of science fiction, with demand far exceeding supply. Toys range from 6-inch Mini-Daleks which, complete with flashing lights and moving antennae, sell for $2.10 apiece, to inflatable rubber Daleks.

Demand was so great for the Mini-Daleks that the British firm licensed to manufacture them was force to farm out orders to a toy factory in Hong Kong.

Best-seller of all, however, is the Mark II Dalek, which is feet high and roomy enough for a child to get inside. This sells for $24.50. But even at this price Hamleys, London's largest toy store, was sold out of them two weeks before Christmas. "We could have sold hundreds more," said the head buyer.

"On Saturday the kids clamor at the factory gates asking to be allowed in to play with the Daleks," says Mrs. K. Anne Wright, the firms sales director.

The television show's producer is a woman, attractive Verity Lambert, 28, who once worked for producer David Susskind in New York. "The Daleks' success is due to the fact that they are frightening and helpless at the same time," says Miss Lambert. "That, and the fact that children love to imitate their monotonous, electronic voices."

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